What is a Flash Message - A Flash SMS appears directly on the phone's screen, instead of the 'Inbox'. Its an useful alternative to normal SMS when you want to catch the recipients attention immediately. The recipient has the option of 'Saving' the Flash SMS to his 'Inbox'.

Now, we can send Flash Messages in India only by using a service by Yahoo in which we have to send a special message which is costlier than a normal one. I guess the same is the scene in other countries.

But I just came to know about an amazing application for S60 phones called FlashSMS which lets you send Flash Messages from your phone without using an additional service. However, this application doesn't have the Phonebook support and Multi-Recipient feature. The author asks for a 'donation' and in return you get a Donation Code which enables these features in your application.

But in my opinion, even without these features this application simply rocks because it is not really crippled and works for unlimited period. All you need is to make an effort to type the recipient's number. So just download it and enjoy.

Nowadays, animated themes for S60 phones has become a hot topic in various forums. Many are curious to know if they can have such themes and some claim to have used them. But they don't really know the fact that S60 phones do NOT support any animated themes. When a user installs a so called animated theme, an application also gets installed along with it. This program plays an animation at the standby screen.

Currently all these themes are quiet unstable. When you remove the program from the Application manager, it doesn't get fully uninstalled and the real program that plays the animation is still there. Moreover, they may cause some problems to your phone. For example, recently an online friend of mine was unable to open picture messages in his phone because of these themes.

If you face any problem or want to fully remove it, do the following:

1. Remove the theme from Themes.
2. Go to Application manager and remove 'PhoneThemes'.
3. Install the latest version of FExplorer.
4. Go to E:\System\Apps. Note: You may need to change the drive to C in the following steps if you installed the themes in phone memory.
5. Delete the folder named 'PhoneThemes'. Then make sure it is deleted.

If it got deleted, continue from step 11.

6. If it doesn't get deleted, open it. There will be only one file present named 'PTPlayer.rsc'. You can't delete it.
7. Go back to the main screen of FExplorer.
8. Open [ processes ].
9. Select 'PTPlayer' and press C to kill it.
10. Go to E:\System\Apps and delete the folder named 'PhoneThemes'. It should get deleted now.
11. Go to E:\System\Recogs.
12. Delete the file named 'PTBoot.mdl'.

So these themes may not be the right option right now. Also, the program will use more RAM just to give an illusion that the theme is animated.

I just came across a blog and read a post that contains information a mobile phone user must know. But I seriously doubt its authenticity.

via infoCT

Don't answer a cell phone while it is being CHARGED!! A few days ago, a person was recharging his cell phone at home.

Just at that time a call came through and he attended to it; with the instrument still connected to the mains. After a few seconds electricity flowed into the cell phone unrestrained and the person was thrown to the ground with a heavy thud.

His parents rushed into the room only to find him unconscious, with weak heartbeats and burnt fingers. He was rushed to the nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

A Cell phone is a very useful modern invention. However, we must be aware that it can also be an instrument of death.

Never use the cell phone while it is hooked to the mains!

Dhaval Faria posted a cool trick which enables you to join the new Windows Live Mail Beta. Here it goes:

1. Log In to your Hotmail Account
2. Go to Options > Change Account Settings
3. In a Personal Settings, Change your Country to United States and State to Florida
4. Save it
5.  Now, dont sign out, and just simple copy the following link and paste it in the same browser window where your hotmail inbox is.

Link - http://by101fd.bay101.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/BetaOptIn?page=option&curmbox=00000000%2d0000%2d0000%2d0000%2d000000000001&a=b9a426ebd4880ad9d14db4b4c55a69f8bb8dea2282102422220030b2b6bb98c8

6. Now you will see a welcome to Mail Beta page, scroll down, and click on Join Mail Beta or Participate button, and you are in.
7. Now simply go back to Account Settings, re-change your Country and State to original one and you can happily enjoy the new Hotmail.

Note: This trick will work only on IE 6.

A Google AdSense Trojan horse has been discovered which produces fake Google Ads that look like the original ones. The Trojan shows ads about adult and gambling content which are not supported by the Google AdSense program. However, it also has a bug of showing a text link in place of the Google and Firefox referral image link.

via Tech Shout

The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.

The working of the Ad has a specific procedure. Wherein when the ad is clicked it forwards the user to 3 different sites one after another. What follows next is that the user finally lands himself to a page having a bevy of ads and links to more ads. Through this malicious program advertisers and publishers are the ones who are being deprived of their revenue.

I found the fourth variant of the Trojan called Pbstealer and there are again some changes. The working is as follows:

1. The Trojan arrives in a file named 'PBCompressor.sis' having a file size of 12.2 KB. As seen in the earlier variants, the user can't install it in the memory card. Just like the third variant, it creates 2 files named 'pbcompressor.app' and 'pbcompressor.rsc' in C:\SystemMail\00110001_S folder.

2. As soon as the Trojan is installed, it executes itself and creates a text file named 'PHONEBOOK.TXT' containing Contacts, Notes, To-Do and Calendar data in C:\System\Mail. And then it tries to send that file to the first Bluetooth device discovered.

3. Now, here are the changes. As soon as the user gets the prompt saying Done!!! Press OK to exit and accepts it, the Trojan deletes its own files which are as follows:

a. 'pbcompressor.app' in C:\System\Mail\00110001_S
This is the file that executes just after the installation completes.

b. 'PBCompressor.sis' in Inbox.
If the user directly transfers the Trojan to the phone using Bluetooth or IR, then the SIS file appears in Inbox. And then he installs it from there. Assuming that the user will install by this method, the Trojan is programmed to delete 'PBCompressor.sis' in Inbox.

However, if the user doesn't have the file in Inbox and installs from some other location using a file manager, the installation file will not get deleted.

Also, if the user receives the Trojan which is renamed to something else than 'PBCompressor.sis', the installation file is again not deleted even if the file is in Inbox. This is because the Trojan is programmed to delete the file named 'PBCompressor.sis' in Inbox.

It is important to know that even if the SIS file is deleted, it will still be visible in Inbox. But obviously, the user will not be able to run it as the actual file doesn't exist.

c. 'PBCompressor.sis' in C:\System\Install
This is the file which is created automatically when any SIS application is installed. It is because of this file the user is able to see the application in Application manager. So the trojan is not seen there.

If the user installed the SIS file which is renamed to something else like 'Patch.sis', then the file created in C:\System\Install will also be named 'Patch.sis'. So again, this file won't be deleted and will be seen in Application manager.

d. 'PHONEBOOK.TXT' in C:\System\Mail
It is important to note that this text file is not actually deleted like the previous files. If the user goes to C:\System\Mail using a file manager and tries to open this text file, it doesn't open and gets deleted.

The only file that is not deleted is 'pbcompressor.rsc' in C:\System\Mail\00110001_S folder.

There is another important thing to note. When the Trojan is executed, the prompt saying Done!!! Press OK to exit appears after some seconds. So if the user closes the Trojan earlier when the prompt has not yet appeared, the above files do not get deleted automatically.

So this time the fourth variant tries to remove its traces.

I just now checked my online friend's site and he has posted about my blog and actually did some praising. So I thought of blogging about him.  His name is Dhaval. Actually he is the guy who helps me a lot in some serious computer related technical issues. At the age of 20, I can say that he has achieved a lot and has a long way to go. Hehe, this guy has mastered 30+ programming languages and of course without any training.   He is also a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional).

However, he is running his own company and is so busy with work that his blog has to suffer sometimes. Here is the link - http://www.dhavalfaria.com.

It has been a real long time since mobile malware came into existence. But sadly, most of the users hardly follow any security measures. Heh...I should say, most of the users hardly KNOW about any security measures. Today, mobile phones are not just used for conversations but they also contain important data. And malware is a major threat for this data.

Nokia has a so called security site but one can't find it easily. Things would have been different if Nokia could give this site a little share of publicity that the N-Series phones or any other Nokia phone gets. The site has a side section with a heading: "Get Up-to-Date". However, one should not take this seriously because Commwarrior is now old news...  But still, it has provided some good security measures which a user should be aware of. Anyways, here is the link.

A service called StealthText has been introduced in the UK which has brought to life the self-destructing messages of 'Mission Impossible.'

via BBC News:

The commercial service allows sensitive messages to be destroyed 40 seconds after being read. Developed by a British firm, Staellium, it is designed to allay worries about incriminating messages.

The most high-profile case of embarrassing text messages in recent years was the revelations of messages sent from England football captain David Beckham to his personal assistant Rebecca Loos.

Privacy comes at a price. Each text using the system costs 50 pence, though users have to sign up for a minimum of 10 messages.

People interested in using the service to send messages have to register and download a small program onto their mobile phone.

Once a message has been sent, the recipient receives a text notification showing the sender's name and a link to the message.

After they have opened it, the message disappears after 40 seconds.

Despite the fact the message will be removed from phones, users cannot entirely avoid a data trail.

For legal reasons, a log of the message will remain on a secure server to which they have no access.

Nokia has also released a patch for Nokia N70 which removes the ringtone problem faced by many users. Sometimes your phone might not ring or vibrate when a call is received. There are a few reasons why this might occur:

1. If you have deleted your ring tone file or changed your MMC card, the phone may not be able to find the ring tone file and therefore cannot play it. Please ensure that your selected ring tone file still exists on the phone or the MMC card.
 
2. Complex ring tones (MIDI, AAC, MP3 or WAV files) can sometimes take a long time to load and play. Occasionally when this happens the phone uses a default ring tone setting which may be missing. To ensure this default ring tone is present you can download this patch file and then transfer and install it on your phone. This patch is recommended even if you have not experienced any problem with the ring tone. If your phone shows a security notification when you are installing the file, please ignore it and continue with the installation.

This patch can be downloaded from the Nokia N70 Support Page.